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Hitachi Maxell, Ltd. and Mitsubishi Kagaku Media Co., Ltd. (MKM), who have been promoting the joint-development of the next-generation DVD recording medium using a blue-violet light source, announced the establishment of the technology to be used for volume-production.

The two companies will be marketing the medium according to their respective merchandise strategies under their own brand names, i.e. Hitachi Maxell's "Maxell" and MKM's "Mitsubishi/Verbatim."

The supporters for Blu-ray Disc (BD) and HD DVD have split the industry into two camps, and the companies on both sides are currently competing fiercely against each other over the issue of the next-generation DVD standard. In order to support both standards, Hitachi Maxell and MKM have co-developed the media compliant with both BD and HD DVD standards. More specifically, they have reportedly developed technologies involved in mastering, disc-molding, cover layer formation of BD, dual-layered medium manufacturing process, and so on. In addition, they have completed the development of the technologies related to a phase-change recording film of a rewritable medium, a recordable medium using an inorganic recording film and a recordable medium using an organic pigment, according to the companies.

They have not specified, however, whether the cover layer formation of BD is carried out by spin coating or sheet method. As for the mastering and dual-layered medium manufacturing technologies, "we will unveil the details gradually," said a Hitachi Maxell spokesperson.